diff --git a/.circleci/config.yml b/.circleci/config.yml
index d44b81c..fe058b2 100644
--- a/.circleci/config.yml
+++ b/.circleci/config.yml
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ jobs:
                 name: install dependencies
                 command: |
                     pip install sphinx
-                    pip install -r docs/doc-requirements.txt
+                    pip install -r docs/requirements.txt
 
             - save_cache:
                 paths:
diff --git a/docs/conf.py b/docs/conf.py
index 8f42adf..7ebd706 100644
--- a/docs/conf.py
+++ b/docs/conf.py
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
-# Support markdown too
+import os
+
 source_suffix = ['.rst']
 
 project = 'The Littlest JupyterHub'
@@ -38,7 +39,10 @@ html_theme = 'alabaster'
 # Add any paths that contain custom static files (such as style sheets) here,
 # relative to this directory. They are copied after the builtin static files,
 # so a file named "default.css" will overwrite the builtin "default.css".
-html_static_path = ['_static']
+# Do this only if _static exists, otherwise this will error
+here = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
+if os.path.exists(os.path.join(here, '_static')):
+    html_static_path = ['_static']
 
 # Configure the sidebar to be how we want it to be
 # We don't have 'navigation' here, since it is very cluttered
diff --git a/docs/environment.yml b/docs/environment.yml
deleted file mode 100644
index d737594..0000000
--- a/docs/environment.yml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,9 +0,0 @@
-name: tljh
-channels:
-  - conda-forge
-dependencies:
-- python=3.6
-- traitlets>=4.1
-- sphinx>=1.4, !=1.5.4
-- pip:
-  - sphinx_copybutton
diff --git a/docs/requirements.txt b/docs/requirements.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a22771d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/requirements.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+sphinx>=1.4, !=1.5.4
+sphinx_copybutton